Your soul mate is hooked up to an I.V

My life has been changed forever. No, not by some horrible disaster, or near death experience. Not from my parents advice, and not from the relentless mornings of school that I still have to endure. It is not from making my bed. It’s not from being on time, or being too late, for that matter. In fact, the timing was quiet perfect. I believe in something that I will never forget. Something so beautiful, that every person must feel what I have felt. I still can not tell you if it is luck, because I don’t know. I believe in an unborn child with an illness. I believe that when they grow up, they will reach out. I believe in grabbing their hand. I believe in falling in love. Zebariah has changed all of me forever. He has taught me what life really is. Some hospital visits later, he won over my heart. You see, life can sometimes be cruel . Given a disease of the lungs, clogging them and making breathing the biggest challenge that you have ever faced. But in him I saw a lot more that suffering and pain. I saw past his headaches and the feelings of being buried underneath a hot heavy blanket of darkness. My first kiss was with a cystic fibrosis patient. His big soft blue eyes taught me where compassion really lives. Even after I was teased for being with a skinny boy, I felt better. He is my life, my best friend, my love, and my soul mate. He has tied strings around my heart. They way he tugs at them is sometimes un-bearable. The biggest burden that the earth holds is when people judge others without knowing who they are. He has saved me in so many ways. I am in love with him. A disability is not just a disability to me anymore. It is perhaps the most beautiful thing I have ever seen. When he is beside me, I can breath. Without him, I am a scattered mess. So the next time you go to the hospital and visit your grandparents in the intensive care, or go to see your new baby sister, peek into the next room. Your soul mate might be hooked up to and I.V.

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This week’s essay

Growing up in the former Yugoslavia, lawyer Djenita Pasic enjoyed the peace of her religiously diverse country. But after the fall of communism and the outbreak of the Bosnian War, Pasic was forced to reevaluate her ideas about religion and tolerance. Click here to read her essay.